Like Father, Like Daughter
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and sixteen:  top 16; Sylvesters  Brittany tries and tries to tell her mother about meeting Joe, and then one Saturday morning at Breadstix...


Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 24th cycle. Now cycle 25!

_**It's cycle 25!**__ If you'll recall, back in cycle 10 I did my top 15 of favorite things (characters, ships, friends..) in Glee, with a ficlet for each of the numbers, and a chapter fic for number 1 (stories 190 to 210). Now this time around, in order to schedule in a friend's birthday, it's a top SIXTEEN, and the number one's six-chapter fic will be split in three blocks... (5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters) It's less confusing than it seems, I promise ;) Here we go!  
**Coming in at number seven!**_

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**"Like Father, Like Daughter"  
Sue & Brittany  
Sylvesters Series #20 (sequel to 'A Promise is a Promise') **

Her father was taking his family on vacation over the summer. At first she had thought he was just telling her about it, but then he explained… He wanted her to come with them, because she was part of that family. She was happy, she was anxious, she wanted to go… And then there was the catch… She would have to tell her mother, that she was going but, most importantly, that she was going with him, and that she'd met him and known him now for a few months. He'd seen right through her, seen the panic in her eyes…

With time, she had come to fear the moment… the moment where she told her mother the one secret, the one real secret she'd ever kept from her that… that could hurt her. She didn't want to lose her; even with all the problems they had at times, she was still her mother and… she loved her… and no matter what, she knew her mother did, too.

That thought was kept as reassurance, the morning when she first tried to tell her. She woke up, and she remembered she had to do it, so with a look to Blippo the blue hippo, wearing the bracelet her little sisters had given her, she screwed up her courage and went out to the kitchen… She wasn't there. She went to her office, and the door was cracked open just a hint… she was in there. She knocked and then pushed the door in. She was at the computer, but she was paying attention. When Brittany didn't speak for a while, Sue looked up.

"It's Tuesday," she told her, as though she expected that was what she wanted to know.

"I… Okay," she turned and walked out, going back to her room. She picked up the plush hippo and sat back on her bed with a sigh… It wasn't going to be that day. So after a while she got back up and she got dressed and went to school. The day went on normally, though whenever she'd see her mother she'd feel like she was letting her down.

The next morning she woke up and once again she told herself that she was ready, and she headed down. Again she found her mother in her office, and when she opened the door.

"It's Wednesday."

"Thank you…" she turned away, staring at the ceiling as she walked away from the office. She dressed, she went to school… How hard was it to speak?

Another morning and now she tried somehow making herself walk faster, like perhaps her problem was she took too long and in the time it took to get from her room to the office the courage could not hang on. So she hurried on her way, opened the door.

"It's Thursday."

"Great," she nodded and left. She stood in the hall, forehead to the wall for a moment, almost to see if she'd get another shot, but she didn't. So she went and got ready for school.

The next day came, and her belief in her abilities was at its lowest now, but still she tried. Her feet were dragging at this point, so that courage was going to have to claw its way on to her and hang on until she got there. Again the door was open a sliver, again she pushed it, and again…

"It's Friday." And again…

"That's what I thought." She may well have cried, walking back to her room. She couldn't do it… and knowing that, she hated herself for having waited so long that now it was impossible… At the very least, she was going to see them all the next morning. They were going to have breakfast at the restaurant; Breadstix had just started serving it. They were going to discuss destinations, and Joe had invited her to join them, since it was to be her vacation as well.

The next morning, even if it was weekend, Sue was sitting in her office bright and early to take care of some business, when she heard the shuffling of feet and then the door. "Brittany, I am buying you a calendar. It's Sat…"

"I know. I'm going out." Sue looked up to find she was dressed and ready to go.

"Well… alright," she responded, and then watched her daughter head off. It took a moment before she started wondering… She'd been acting strange all week, and now this… Something threw her suspicion alarm on, and she took off her glasses, getting up.

She followed her. Some would question her decisions, but she had a tracker in her phone. She'd lost that girl in malls too many times in her life to worry about what people thought… Maybe the fact that she still used it would seem excessive, but then she still got lost… She found herself following her to the mall, which might not have seemed out of the usual, but then it was Saturday and it was too early for the shops to be open, so… she had to be meeting someone.

She was led all the way to Breadstix… Okay, maybe she was meeting Santana… She almost turned away, but then she remembered it wasn't just that she was going out, it was this whole past week that had her concerned, so she carried along, to see who she was meeting. The place was semi-crowded, and it took her a moment to spot her daughter, only because she wasn't expecting what she found…

There she was, sitting in a booth, between two younger girls, sitting across from Joe and a woman… She recognized him before she connected that it was Joe, her Joe, Brittany's father, sitting across from Brittany, across from their daughter… He was the one she was meeting on that morning, and not just him… The woman would have to be Joe's wife, and the girls… girls, all three of them… Joe's daughters… They looked like they belonged, the five of them, anyone would believe it… And Sue… She stood there… alone. Her heart felt impossibly flat, stomped… and yet her feet moved forward, a step or two… They wouldn't go further, wouldn't need to. Joe looked up, and he saw her.

"So you did tell her?" he looked to Brittany. She looked up to him, confused, then looked to the side and saw her mother. Their eyes remained locked… Brittany had never felt worse in her life, not as much as she did, seeing her mother's face as she sat there, caught amongst her family. But then she turned and started walking away, and Brittany scrambled.

"Wait!" she called, and Cat, by her side, moved off the bench to let her pass. Joe got up as well, following when Brittany dashed off. She caught up with Sue just before she could walk out the mall doors to the parking lot. "Wait, please…" she called just as her mother stopped and turned. Brittany flinched, seeing the look on her face.

"How long…" she asked.

"I… I don't…" Brittany shook her head.

"How long has this been going on?" she rephrased, just as Joe reached them.

"Sue, let me…" he started, but she didn't let him finish.

"I could call the cops on you," she sneered.

"For what? Getting to know my daughter? You never really afforded me that chance, did you?"

"Please, don't fight," Brittany begged.

"If they're what you want, then you go ahead. You can finally be Brittany Pierce," Sue spoke before she could stop herself. She saw, physically saw her daughter's face quiver like she'd just been slapped, eyes watering. "I can't do this right now," she pushed the door and walked out. Brittany couldn't move, and Joe put a hand on her shoulder.

"She just needs time. It's going to be okay," he promised.

"No, it's not…" she shook her head. All her fears were coming true and she couldn't even walk. At least she wasn't cr… He wrapped his arms around her, and she broke down instantly.

Eventually he managed to get her back to the restaurant. She wasn't ready to go home, and Sue probably wasn't ready to hear her, either. The breakfast mood had been turned upside down, and one thing was certain… she probably wouldn't be joining them on their vacation.

They drove her home. Joe offered to go in, so did Charlotte, and even Cat and Izzy, but Brittany said no. She had to do it herself. She walked up the path… she almost expected the locks to have been changed, but they weren't. She went in, and the house was eerily quiet. Her mother wasn't in her office, not in her room… She was in her room, in Brittany's room, sitting on the edge of her bed, just… staring at the wall. When Brittany walked in, Sue looked over. Much like when Brittany had spotted her, from her booth at Breadstix, their gazes were locked. Their expressions had been changed though, with revelations, and time to reflect…

"I'm sorry," were Brittany's first words. Sue slowly got up, and she walked up to her… Brittany wasn't sure what to expect her to do… She'd never raised a hand to her, but would this do it?

Her mother hugged her… She held her close, like she hadn't done, freely, in such a long time it seemed… Feeling this, feeling that there was still so much love in her mother to give her even after what she'd done to her, Brittany felt the tears come to her for the second time that day, hugging back.

"I'm sorry…" she repeated, muffled in her shoulder. She knew this wasn't over, that even if she was hugging her now, soon there would be questions, and decisions… They would never be the same…

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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